I’m asking because there was a letter in Dear Abby the other day where a mom said her adult daughter moved back home and stays in her room all day working as an “influcencer and content creator.” She wanted her daughter to come out occasionally and socialize (good luck with that, Mom), but the part that interested me is how can this be a “job” that you actually make money at? (Although apparently not enough money to maintain your own residence.)
I’m not on any social media although I have visited Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram occasionally when someone refers me there, so I know what they are. I don’t totally understand the appeal, especially when people post pictures of the food they’re eating in restaurants. I watch a fair amount of YouTube and I can see how channels like “Fabulessly Frugal” and “Tasting History” generate a lot of income because of product links and patreon and stuff like that. I love both of those channels and others, too.
So I admit I’m out of it (okay… waaaay out of it) when it comes to the vast world of social media. ISTM that an Influencer is an aggregator… they find stuff and tell people about it. Does a Content Creator actually create stuff? Explain like I’m five seventy-five.
Near as can tell, to make a living as content creator you have to build income streams from YouTube ad views, product sponsorships in videos, Patreon, mech sales, and streaming. All those feed each other. You also have to have an active social media presence to drive it all.
One can absolutely make a living like that. I am sure it’s risky and the income is erratic and more people fail than win, but that is true for most small businesses.
ETA: as far aswhat you create, its just anything people like to watch. Play video games, make dioramas, cook, whatever.
I have a 21 year old in-law who is an “influencer” and “content creator”. Her content is…wait for it…on-line porn.
Her mom and grandmother are fine with it, because “sex worker is legitimate work”.
She seems to be making a living, mostly because she lives with her grandma in the attic, doesn’t pay rent or food, or electricity, or internet. Other than that…
We’re kind of lumping two rather distinct occupations together. It’s no mystery how someone can make a living creating content for the Internet, especially now that platforms like YouTube have become successfully monetized.
“Influencer” is the outlier. They are basically one-person, freelance PR firms and monetizing that skill set is still rather hit and miss. Many influencers, if they get payed at all, are compensated with the products and services they are promoting rather than an actual paycheck.
I do get that YouTube has content. Do people create actual content on other platforms besides YouTube? Beyond an album of all the restaurant food they’ve eaten in the last year?
Pretty much any website that makes you look at/watch ads is monetized content created by someone. And, as noted above, the porn industry has been creating Internet content since almost day-one. Also, in the early days of the Internet, people could make money just by writing bland essays related to an e-commerce site to attract search engine bots and spiders. I’m not sure search engines still work that way, but if they do, I’m sure ChatGPT has put those folks out of business overnight.
Twitch is another big platform, particularly for live-streaming content. It’s big for people doing content creation around gaming, but there are also people who stream live music there.
Also, I’d say that anyone who’s creating podcasts are also content creators.
I get why someone would upload content to Youtube, if they think it will net them some of that sweet, sweet Youtube cash, sponsorship, and publicity, but what kind of content are you creating? There is nearly always someplace better to upload it than youtube. Nebula, Skillshare, the Internet Archive, etc. TikTok may be riding a temporary wave of popularity.
I feel like you have tracking software on me. I watched videos last night of exactly those things!
Last night’s diorama videos were a first, though. Just stumbled onto one, then clicked a few more. I can see myself getting hooked on those videos. Amazing how talented some folks are.
It’s a species of show business, in my opinion, and like other such branches of show business, a huge amount depends on things like the personality (and maybe looks) of the presenter (assuming they are participating in the video in person or by voice) and by the production values of the video – things like pacing, lighting, editing, camera work and so on.
Also, it takes time, in some cases a lot of time, to build up your skills and your audience. Very few channels take off right away, and a lot of the content niches on YouTube are very competitive.
And there is a lot of synergy. I watch more Minecraft content than I would like to admit (hey! it’s wholesome!) and its clearly an ecosystem. You get exposure with interesting videos, ideally collaborate with others in your same interest area. Then you use the videos to get people to come watch you stream, which I believe is actually more lucrative. Streaming is way more personal, so people join your Patreon and get access to your discord or a server to play videogames with other fans, and more contact with you. These are the people who buy your merch, and as the community grows, you get sponsorships.
I fully agree. My point was that you can’t look at somebody working on making videos and conclude that person is wasting their time. They may be. But they might be laying the foundation for a highly successful career.
The pre-internet equivalent would be a person who spends hours every day sitting in their room writing a book. A family member looking in the room might say “You should stop sitting around all day and go out and get a real job and start acting like an adult.” But just seeing a person writing doesn’t tell you if they’re throwing away their life accomplishing nothing or if they’re the next Tom Clancy or John Grisham or J.K. Rowling.
Yeah but 99% of those people still don’t do it enough to make a decent living as their sole income.
I know a few people who tried to quit their jobs to “Play games on YouTube” and they all failed within a month, and it obviously was not going to work out even if they went longer.
It’s a career path in the same way that being a professional baseball player is a career path. There are a few that make a ludicrous amount of money most fail. Unlike in baseball there are no early indicators that you won’t make it like can’t hit a curveball.
There is a trend in the comedy world to self produce your own comedy special on YouTube. When one comic I know that isn’t that well known put his special up I looked up how many fews it takes to make money. It’s a lot.
I think its more like being in band or writing genre fiction. Very few people become rock stars and make millions, but quite a few people make some sort of a living, at least for a while. The most successful ones treat it like a business, producing what people want, not focusing on their own self-expression, and the put in a hell of a lot of work.
There are so many YouTube channels out there with half a million to a couple million subs. Those people are not making fuck you money, but they are making a living. They aren’t all kids in their mom’s basement, and they seem to be living like they have professional incomes.
ETA: Youtube doesn’t release numbers but the internet seems to thonk there are 30-40k channels with a million subs. That’s generally considered the “support yourself well” number, if not directly from YouTube than because a person with that many subs can leverage it.
One big difference is in pre-internet years you might go to school with a couple of people who want to make a go at being in a band. Talk to a teacher now and they will tell you more kids are hoping to be internet stars than any other profession. And I’m not just talking about a seven year olds fantasy. 30-40,000 channels worldwide aren’t a lot when you consider how many are trying.
You’re right that it’s hard to accurately see what the exact formula for monetizing is. I’ve seen predictions that a million sub channel makes about $60,000. I’ve also seen creators make between $5 and $18 per 1,000 views. Another problem is creators are held to whims of YouTube. I remember not that long ago there was an uproar when YouTube changed their policy and a bunch of people lost money. The big names have alternate revenue streams. The vast majority rely on YouTube to pay them.’
I watched videos last night of exactly those things!